


In Case You Were Wondering

by MrsCalculation



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: M/M, Post-Canon, Pre-Relationship, Seung-gil's dog is an important player in this fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-06
Updated: 2020-06-06
Packaged: 2021-03-03 21:53:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,222
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24582604
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MrsCalculation/pseuds/MrsCalculation
Summary: Phichit has been struggling with this dumb crush for over a month and it’s making him lose his mind.He’shadthe stupid crush for well longer, just about as long as his senior career, but it only became a struggle recently.
Relationships: Phichit Chulanont & Katsuki Yuuri, Phichit Chulanont/Lee Seung Gil, background Katsuki Yuuri/Victor Nikiforov
Comments: 16
Kudos: 103





	In Case You Were Wondering

**Author's Note:**

  * For [PeppyBismilk](https://archiveofourown.org/users/PeppyBismilk/gifts).



> Thank you to Pep for donating to Campaign Zero as part of the fight to end police brutality in the United States. This fic is my thanks to her!

“You’re no help, Yuuri!” Phichit flumps back onto his bed, short strands of hair fanning around his ears on his pillow. He throws an arm across his face for emphasis. “You’re supposed to be good at this!”

“I don’t know who told you that, but they’re wrong,” screen-Yuuri says over the video call. “You’ve talked to him more than I have. I really don’t have much to offer here.”

Phichit groans loudly, just in case it’s obscured by the crook of his elbow. “But he’s never initiated a conversation with me before! You’re god-tier, Yuuri, do you know that?”

“Er, no? He just showed me a picture of his dog, it really wasn’t much. You’d shown me the picture before anyway.”

Phichit shifts his arm slightly to reveal one eye. He needs to glare. “Yuuri. He sought you out. He spoke to you. You’ve even hugged him before! You’re like royalty.” He sighs and covers his eye again. “He’s secretly in love with you. He’s using me to get to you, and I will fall in love with him while he pines for you.”

“Seung-gil is not _secretly in love with me_ , Phichit-kun, are you hearing yourself? It’s not _my_ selfie he liked.”

“And I will be there,” Phichit continues over Yuuri, “rubbing gentle circles into his back as he cries in the bathroom at your wedding. It will be the first and only time we touch, because he will be too ashamed to ever look at me again.”

“Phichi—”

“He will recognize the longing in my touch, the heartbreak in my tone, as I comfort him in his time of need, because it will be exactly how he felt every time you grazed hands, every time he said hello to you.”

“I swear to—”

“And we will part ways, never seeing each other again. I’ll quit skating because seeing him will hurt too much. I’ll become a recluse, living in my tiny home in the woods, making tiny things for my tiny hamsters and not even posting proof of my crafts, because I will quit social media when even reading his name becomes too much to bear.”

“Phichit!” Viktor’s voice cuts in, stopping Phichit short. He pushes himself upright and blinks at his phone, Viktor’s face on the screen where Yuuri’s was before. He’s clearly walking somewhere, Yuuri nowhere in sight. “Will you just DM the man, for god’s sake?”

“You’re not one to talk, Nikiforov,” Phichits says with a dramatic sniff. “At least I’m capable of talking about my feelings.”

Viktor feigns offense, but they’ve played this game enough before for Phichit to know it’s fine. It’s _weird_ that living legend of figure skating Viktor Nikiforov is now someone he teases on a regular basis.

“But you’re talking about them to the wrong person, Phichit!” Viktor says, shutting a door behind him and leaning against it. It seems to shake slightly where he’s resting his head, and there’s an incessant pounding noise in the background. “You have to tell him how you feel, not us! Or better yet, _show_ him how you feel!”

Phichit snorts. “By, what, dropping everything to fly to South Korea to coach him?” There’s a _thunk_ on the other end when Viktor’s head knocks against the door behind him. The pounding gets louder. “I’m sure that’ll work great for me, emotionally flamboyant guy that he is and all.”

“You could just send him a picture of—”

The screen goes shaky, and there’s a blur of motion and the sound of a thud, then Phichit is looking at what he can only assume is Yuuri and Viktor’s ceiling.

“Give me back my phone, Viktor!” Phichit hears yelled from a distance.

“He needs real advice! I’m trying to help!”

“You’re being gross!”

There’s a brief pause, filled with the sound of bodies rustling against the carpet, then a scandalized, “Hamsters! I swear I was going to say hamsters!”

Phichit stays on the call until Yuuri, glasses askew and hair ruffled, appears on his screen again.

“Try talking to him at Worlds, Phichit-kun,” he says like nothing happened. “I’ll even bring some extra cute pictures of Makkachin to get his attention for you. Not that you need the help. You’re the single most charming person I know.” Viktor squawks in the background.

Phichit agrees and they end the call with plans to meet up when they fly in for Worlds, but Phichit flumps against his bed again as soon as his screen goes blank. He’s anything but charming or confident when it comes to Seung-gil.

* * *

Phichit has been struggling with his dumb crush for over a month and it’s making him lose his mind.

He’s _had_ the stupid crush for well longer, though, just about as long as his senior career. He and Seung-gil had entered senior competition the same year, which had seemed weird to Phichit at the time—Seung-gil was a far more talented skater than Phichit was, and he had more resources at his disposal, coming from a country with an actual figure skating presence and all, so Phichit was surprised to learn that Seung-gil waited as long as he did to begin senior competition. Neither of them had qualified for the Grand Prix Final that season or even had a qualifier together, but they had both managed to make it to the Four Continents in Seoul, Seung-gil on his promise and Phichit on his novelty.

Phichit distinctly remembers being enraptured by Seung-gil that day. His theme was _solitude_ , his short program a hollow and incomplete piece that started and ended abruptly with no real introduction or conclusion, just a knocking echo that haunted the dark, quiet corners of the rink. Seung-gil had matched the mood of the music perfectly with his routine, technically simpler than his usual, but more suited to him and emotionally compelling than anything he’d performed in juniors before. Phichit’s chest was empty and aching by the end of it, and his anxiety for the challenge of senior competition was replaced with excitement for the art of it all again.

Still, the performance likely wouldn’t have stood out to Phichit if he hadn’t happened to watch Seung-gil at the kiss and cry—after all, there were far more seasoned skaters there who he could learn from. But Phichit watched as Seung-gil earned a personal best for his short program, and for a split second, Phichit swore that Seung-gil actually _smiled_. There was the tiniest quirk to his lips and the slightest brightening of his eyes, and then it was gone, Seung-gil standing to wave to the crowd and move towards the reporters waiting for him.

The jumbotron screen cut from Seung-gil to the next skater then, leaving Phichit with no choice but to look up Seung-gil’s interview that night.

“Who do you skate for?” an interviewer in one clip asked Seung-gil's blank face.

“Myself,” Seung-gil answered, curt as ever. His coach elbowed him slightly, and his eyes narrowed slightly, but he cleared his throat to start again. “My theme is solitude, about skating for my own satisfaction. But I also skate for Korea.” He hesitated for a moment, lips still parted and eyes flicking away from the cameras. “And… family. My older brother and younger sister are here today. They don’t make it to many competitions, so today is for them.”

After that, Phichit dove into finding the rest of the interview, though it took a few hours to scrape the whole thing together from the clips he found.

Neither Phichit nor Seung-gil had medalled the next day, but Phichit did manage to nod an enthusiastic _good luck_ to Seung-gil before he went on. He’s managed to keep up the gesture at every competition they’ve shared since, sprinkling in a verbal _good luck!_ or _great job!_ when he gets the chance, and has even once earned a nod in return, so Phichit would say he’s happy with the way things are progressing. At this rate, maybe they’ll exchange two whole sentences by the time Phichit retires.

Or, they would have, had things not gone wrong at this season’s Four Continents.

Phichit had been minding his own business at the banquet, making his rounds to congratulate the medalists after spending the first part of his evening third-wheeling Yuuri and Viktor. Yuuri had won that gold he’d promised Viktor, so they would officially be getting married in the off-season, and as happy as Phichit was for Yuuri, it turns out that Viktor Nikiforov is the living legend of being _actually insufferable_ when drunk.

After extracting himself from JJ with one final congratulations for his bronze, Phicit, having reached the point where listening to JJ’s enthusiastic tipsy rambling about how beautiful and perfect Isabella is was no longer preferable to Viktor’s drunken octopusing all over Yuuri, worked his way to where Otabek stood with his coach. Phichit had every intention of congratulating him on his silver—hard-earned after squeaking out just barely a point over JJ’s score—when he spared a glance to where Yuuri stood, now with one arm simply tucked around Viktor’s waist as Viktor talked to an American ice dancer Phichit didn’t really know.

And then, sliding up to Yuuri was Seung-gil.

Phichit stopped dead in his tracks, close enough to Otabek that he had clearly noticed him. “Um, congrats on silver!” Phichit said distractedly, eyes flicking over to where Seung-gil had pulled out his phone while talking to Yuuri.

“Thank you,” Otabek said, no indication of offense at how little Phichit was actually looking at him. “You performed well today.”

“Thanks!” Phichit said, then twisted half away. “Oh, um, I have to go, I’ll be right back, sorry!”

Otabek just nodded, then sipped passively at his ice water. Phichit took that as his cue to dart away.

“She’s very cute,” Phichit heard Yuuri say as he approached. “What’s her name?”

“Gimbap,” Seung-gil answered, and Phichit had sworn he was going to die then and there. Seung-gil was showing Yuuri pictures of his dog _._ “I named her when I was a child.”

“May I?” Yuuri asked, then gestured to the phone. Seung-gil nodded, and Yuuri swiped at it. “Aw, she’s so sweet!”

“She is,” Seung-gil said, then looked up, directly to where Phichit was standing, looking at him. Not staring.

(Okay, maybe staring.)

In the fluorescent light of the banquet hall, Seung-gil’s face suddenly seemed paler than usual, and his eyes wider. Phichit stepped forward to greet him, and maybe go as far as to shake his hand, but Seung-gil immediately side-stepped him.

“Good night,” he said to Yuuri, not even glancing at Phichit before walking away.

“Good… night?” Yuuri called after him, then turned to Phichit.

“What was _that_?” Phichit whisper-demanded at Yuuri the moment he was confident Seung-gil was out of earshot.

“How am I supposed to know?” Yuuri hissed frantically back at him. “He just came up to me and said _do you want to see my dog_ out of nowhere and started showing me pictures from his Instagram! Then he ran away just as suddenly!”

Phichit resisted the urge to whine. “Yuuri! He ran away from _me_!”

“He didn’t! I’m sure he just had to go talk to his coach or something!”

But when they didn’t see so much as a glance of Seung-gil through the rest of the evening, Phichit threw his arms pathetically around Yuuri’s shoulders. “What did I _do_?”

Yuuri just patted his shoulders awkwardly with no response.

That had been a month ago, and now, three days before Phichit is scheduled to fly out for Worlds, Seung-gil has popped up out of nowhere to like Phichit’s latest post on Instagram, a mock-aggressive selfie captioned _ready for it #worlds_ with a Finnish flag emoji.

Seung-gil doesn’t even follow him on Instagram. He doesn’t follow _anyone_.

Phichit swears he’s going to die.

* * *

Words goes as well as it can with Viktor, Yuuri, Plisetsky, and Leroy all competing. Phichit is happy with his ninth place finish, though he would have loved to finish the season with a medal from a major competition. He knows with such a stacked lineup of competitors, he should be happy to have finished top ten.

He’s a little more focused on who came in eighth, though, even if he hasn’t looked at him all evening, and had ignored Phichit’s quiet _good luck_ before the free skate.

Still, Phichit has been having a good time at the banquet, catching up with skating friends he hasn’t seen since he trained in Detroit and dragging Leo to talk to Viktor because he knows Leo won’t approach him otherwise. After, they find a corner of the hall to call Guang Hong from, since he didn’t qualify for Worlds this season, and spend a happy few minutes chattering away at him and switching to video chat to show him live some of the shenanigans he’s missing from the banquet. Unfortunately for his entertainment, both Viktor and Yuuri are sober this time around despite Chris’s best efforts.

It’s when they’re proving this to Guang Hong that Phichit notices that, yet again, Seung-gil has approached Yuuri.

“Let’s go bother Yuuri,” Phichit says, then drags Leo and phone-Guang Hong away with him. He’s not sure he has the emotional fortitude to handle rejection on his own.

“Uh?” is all either of them has time to say before they’ve reached Yuuri.

“Yuuri! Say hi to Guang Hong!” Phichit interrupts, shoving his phone in Yuuri’s face. “Hi, Seung-gil!”

“Hi,” he says quietly, looking away and shifting his weight. He seems uncomfortable, and Phichit realizes that between himself, Leo, and Yuuri and Viktor, Seung-gil is boxed in, his back to the wall. Phichit scoots closer to Leo, allowing space for Seung-gil to escape, but Seung-gil only shifts his weight again.

Leo looks between the two of them, then says, “you did really well, Seung-gil. Your free skate is really impressive!”

“Thank you,” Seung-gil says, looking Leo right in the eye, but not saying anything else. He looks away a second later, back at his phone still displaying a picture of his dog in Yuuri’s hand.

“Leo!” Viktor says suddenly, breaking into the beginning of an uncomfortable silence. “Yuuri and I wanted to talk to you! We have some ideas about future choreography that could really maximize your strengths!”

Yuuri looks up at Viktor, _we do?_ written on his face. “Vitya,” he starts.

“Come on!” Viktor says, then drags both Yuuri and Leo away, leaving Phichit and Seung-gil to blink after them.

“Well,” Phichit says into the silence they leave behind. Seung-gil doesn’t say anything, and Phichit braves a glance at him. He looks as confused as Phichit feels. “How are you?” Phichit asks, internally screaming at himself.

“Good,” Seung-gil says.

Phichit waits so long for a _what about you?_ in return that he almost sinks into the floor in embarrassment.

“Well,” Phichit starts, ready to cut his losses and run away crying, when Seung-gil says,

“Do you want to see a picture of my dog?”

 _Yes!_ Phichit’s brain screams. _Say yes! You love his dog!_ But for an excruciatingly long moment, he can’t make his vocal cords work, and he stares at Seung-gil with his mouth hanging open.

He watches Seung-gil’s expression shutter. “Never mind,” he says, turning to leave.

“Wait! I’d love to!” Phichit says, not sure when his mouth decided it was its own being that doesn’t need to consult him on major decisions.

Seung-gil turns back to him slightly but keeps his distance. He reaches into his pocket, pats at it, then looks up and behind Phichit. “Katsuki still has my phone.”

“Oh,” Phichit says dumbly, turning to follow Seung-gil’s gaze and landing where Leo, Viktor, and Yuuri stand, huddled together and whispering frantically at each other and occasionally glancing up at them. Sure enough, Yuuri is still holding not only Seung-gil’s phone, but Phichit’s as well.

“He has mine, too,” Phichit says. “I can go get them back.”

“You don’t need to,” Seung-gil says. “It looks like they’re having an important conversation. It can wait.”

Important conversation. Right.

“Well, maybe later, then,” Phichit says again, fumbling for a conversation. “You did really well today. You should be proud of yourself.”

“Not really,” Seung-gil says, looking away again.

“You did! You definitely did better than I did, anyway, though that’s not diffi—”

“You deserved to score higher.”

“Uh.” Phichit shuts his mouth mid-thought. “What?”

“You were exceptional. Your short program was clean, and you got the audience excited with your free skate. I never do that. Your component score should have been higher. You deserve to be higher than me.”

Phichit tilts his head. “I only have one quad, and I messed up the combinations in my free. My score made sense.”

“Technically, yes, but it also would have made sense if it were higher. You got a better response from the audience than any other skater who wasn’t on the podium. This was your most expressive free skate yet. A higher score would have been justified.”

“Do you normally try to convince your competition that they’re better than you?” Phichit asks playfully. “Because that can’t be good for your self-esteem.”

“Only when they are.”

Phichit gapes a little, suddenly lightheaded. “I mean this as respectfully as possible, but you’re wrong,” Phichit says, forcing a little grin onto his face. “I mean, have you seen me this season? I’ve been so inconsistent! My scores have been all over the place!”

“Phichit,” Seung-gil says softly, and Phichit snaps his head up to meet his eye. “Yes, I’ve seen you. Your scores have been different than before, but they have all been good. And you are charismatic and energizing to watch.” He’s quiet for a moment, but Phichit can tell he has more to say and gives him the space to say it, not sure what he would say even if he wanted to interrupt. “You’re… one of the only skaters I always watch. Because you are that good. You skate in a way that no one else does, and I… I admire that.”

“You’re serious?” Phichit says, searching Seung-gil’s expression, but he just nods. Phichit smiles at him, genuine but muted, terrified the full force of his joy would scare Seung-gil away. “That means a lot coming from you. I’ve always admired you as a skater. And… yeah, I’ve always admired you. So. Thank you.”

Then Seung-gil looks at him, a slight quirk to his lips and a brightness to his eyes, soft and sustained this time, and Phichit thinks he may pass out because Seung-gil Lee is _smiling_ at him.

“You’re welcome,” he says softly, then his gaze flits over Phichit’s shoulder. “May I have my phone back?” he asks, and Phichit almost gets whiplash from how quickly Seung-gil’s tone changed.

“Yes, of course, sorry about that,” Yuuri says, then steps next to Phichit to hand both of them back their phones. He looks at Phichit and smirks slightly before turning to follow after Viktor, where he’s clearly going to bother Plisetsky and Otabek.

“You can show me pictures of your dog now!” Phichit says after rolling his eyes at Yuuri.

“Yeah,” Seung-gil says, glancing away for a moment before turning to face Phichit entirely again. “And maybe. Maybe I can video call you once I’m home? So you can meet her?”

Phichit beams at him. “I would love that.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you again to [PeppyBismilk!](https://archiveofourown.org/users/PeppyBismilk/pseuds/PeppyBismilk)
> 
> It's still Seung-gil's birthday where I live when I'm posting this, so happy birthday to my boy!!!
> 
> [Seung-gil's senior debut short program](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQEMJPE6cfI&list=LL18FHV82u3Be-rCQ6vUCqEA&index=2&t=0s)
> 
> Shout out to [flailingensues](https://archiveofourown.org/users/flailingensues) for encouraging me to start writing seungchuchu! When I post another soon, it'll be thanks to them, so show them all your love <3
> 
> Thank you for reading! As always, call me out on any formatting/grammar/continuity errors, and feedback is appreciated!
> 
> Find me on [Tumblr](https://mrscalculation.tumblr.com/) and [Twitter](https://twitter.com/MrsCalculation/status/1266184027494629376) @MrsCalculation!


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